Executive director
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her story
The Servant Leadership of
Constance Olivia Slaughter Harvey-Burwell, Ed. D. (c)
Constance Olivia Slaughter Harvey-Burwell is Legacy's co-founder, reading consultant, and Executive Director. Legacy provides educational enrichment for low-wealth families of colors in rural Mississippi and worked under the umbrella organization of her late grandparent’s foundation, the W. L. and O.K Slaughter Memorial Foundation incorporated over thirty years ago.
Although she is in the process of defending her dissertation on the effective leadership practices of Head Start Directors in Mississippi, she specializes in community education. She serves as president and founder of the OLIVIA Group, LLC., her high school senior year creation and 25-year-young community consulting firm on strategic nonprofit management and education curriculum development in Jackson and Forest Mississippi. Constance Olivia is the recipient of 3 national research and leadership based fellowships, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Fellowship where she assisted vulnerable communities in creating strong education literacy for children through community educational enrichment programs, the Ford Foundation’s New Voices Gulf Coast Transformation Research Fellowship were she addressed the immigrant and human rights housing needs of displaced Hurricane Katrina victims and she addressed the low-wealth farmer needs to increase and sustain agricultural crop profits in the South, and the Management and Strategy Institute Fellowship were she is committed to continual professional development that equip leaders in public and private organizations to create and implement sound policy and process improvement in business related fields.
Constance Olivia served as Education Policy Development Liaison for five years at Southern Echo, Inc. in Jackson, Mississippi. She was actively engaged with state education policies of charter schools, 3rd Grade Reading Gate, Common Core State Standards and worked with the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus, Mississippi Legislative Democratic Caucus, the Mississippi Delta Catalyst Roundtable, Mississippi Human Rights Network, Mississippi Immigrant’s Rights Association, Inc. and Dignity in Schools Campaign to improve education conditions in rural Mississippi. She engaged in education research and was pivotal in the creation of P-16 Community Councils in partnership with the Mississippi Department of Education.
She has over 25 years of experience assisting Pre-K-college students from various socioeconomic and cultural areas in both public and private educational institutions. Constance has over 20 years of experience and networks working across the nation to improve education literacy in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Rhode Island, Maryland, and D.C. to encourage a love for reading literacy and youth leadership development. She has served as education legislative director for Congressman Bennie G. Thompson in Washington (Jet Magazine in 2000 noted her as the youngest permanent congressional staffer), as a servant-leader for Children’s Defense Fund in Chicago, an AmeriCorps Learn and Serve Program director with Operation Shoestring, Inc. in Jackson, education policy liaison with Southern Echo, Inc. in Jackson, and Senior Program Officer for the Slaughter Memorial Foundation, Inc. and the Legacy Education and Community Empowerment Foundation, Inc. in Forest.
A Forest, Mississippi native, Constance Olivia holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science (Honors) from Tougaloo College. She holds a 3.8 G.P.A Master of Science in Reading Education, a 4.0 G.P.A. Doctorate of Education (Candidate). She is a member of Kappa Gamma Pi and Kappa Delta Pi Honorary Societies. She is a Diamond Life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and is a legacy. She has written and facilitated many youth leadership and education community engagement models and is in the process of publishing them. Her research is developed through practical experience and scholarly methodology and centers on the global community’s role in shaping education through youth leadership development and educational enrichment opportunities such as literacy summer camps and after-school programs. She has extensively studied and practiced the impact of nonprofits, parents, businesses, and communities as critical supports to early childhood reading literacy, especially in rural areas.
She is married to her best friend of eighteen years, James, and they have an amazing eleven-year-old son, James III, and a canine daughter, Ice-A-Pooh. As a nine-year homeschool mother, and a twenty-year reading consultant, Constance believes that a strong early education foundation is crucial for a successful life. Constance honors her grandparents, the late Mrs. Olivia and Alderman W.L. Slaughter and her parents, the Honorable Constance Slaughter-Harvey, Esq., and the late Mr. Joseph James "Jim" Harvey, Jr., by continually working side by side intergenerationally to collectively maintain the 40-year legacy of empowering community families in central Mississippi. Constance Olivia is an African-American female. (Pronouns: she, her, hers)